China tackle makers told to rethink export routes as geopolitics b...

Chinese fishing tackle manufacturers pursuing overseas expansion are being urged to rethink their playbook as deepening geopolitical fault lines, reshoring pressures, and a surge in outbound investment reshape the rules of global trade.

Speaking at a recent lecture hosted by Peking University’s National School of Development, Professor Deng Ziliang laid out the latest trends in Chinese corporate globalisation and delivered a pointed message for export-driven sectors, including the fishing tackle industry, which remains one of China’s most internationally exposed manufacturing clusters.

Data cited by Deng shows the scale of the push abroad. One northern province’s commerce department recorded a jump in approved outbound investment filings from 280 enterprises in 2022 to 506 in 2024 — an 81 percent increase in just two years. Listed companies with overseas revenue streams have climbed from roughly 200 in 2003 to around 2,700 by 2023, with overseas-earning firms now accounting for approximately half of all listed Chinese enterprises since 2013.

The scale of ambition is unmistakable. What has changed sharply is the environment those investments now face.

Deng, who also serves as assistant dean at the National School of Development and directs the institution’s EMBA programme for globalising enterprises, has spent the past year conducting on-the-ground research in Thailand, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Hong Kong, and the United States, visiting 15 Chinese-invested operations and conducting more than 40 interviews with former ambassadors and trade officials. His findings paint a picture of companies navigating a world where the old playbook of low-cost manufacturing exports to Western markets is no longer sufficient.

For the fishing tackle sector, which has long depended on established supply chains feeding European and North American retailers, the implications are immediate. Tackle manufacturers in Weihai, Shandong, and across the coastal industrial belt have built reputations on cost-competitive production of rods, reels, lures, lines, and accessories. Many are now exploring whether to follow the lead of new energy vehicle and battery makers — sectors Deng highlighted as benchmarks — and establish production footprints closer to end markets in Southeast Asia, North Africa, and Central America.

The professor identified a cluster of countries gaining favour among Chinese outbound investors. Morocco, which he cited as Europe’s so-called “back garden,” now exports roughly 90 percent of its automotive production to the European Union and offers the combination of political neutrality, low labour costs, and existing manufacturing capacity that Chinese tackle producers may find equally attractive. Similar logic is driving interest in Egypt, Mexico, and selected Southeast Asian hubs as companies seek to circumvent tariff barriers and reduce exposure to single-market concentration.

Yet Deng was emphatic that efficiency-first strategies built over the past two decades are no longer adequate. Companies must move beyond a narrow focus on cost arbitrage and instead build capabilities in localisation, supply chain resilience, and brand development. He noted that the most successful Chinese exporters in 2025 — including leaders in electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar cells — have demonstrated competitive strength in R&D and systems integration, not merely in price.

For tackle manufacturers, the translation is direct. Buyers from Dusseldorf to Dallas are increasingly scrutinising not just unit cost but intellectual property, compliance with sustainability standards, and the ability to provide stable delivery from diversified production bases. Firms that cannot demonstrate these capabilities risk losing shelf space to competitors from emerging manufacturing hubs that have already made the transition.

Deng’s central warning was that the era when Chinese manufacturers could rely on a single export corridor is over. Companies that fail to break free from traditional path dependencies, he argued, risk being squeezed between rising protectionism in developed markets and more agile competitors in developing ones. For an industry as globally integrated as fishing tackle, where margins are thin and buyer relationships are paramount, adapting to this new geography of trade may prove as consequential as any product innovation in the coming decade.

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